An A319 passenger was smoking a cigarette in the lavatory but the smoke detector failed to alert. A ...

Narrative:

A male passenger went into lav F. He flushed several times and opened the door. Flight attendant B said; do you smell that. As soon as the words were out of her mouth I did smell it. I stopped the passenger from going to seat and asked where he put the cigarette. He denied it of course and when he opened his mouth it was as if a cloud of smoke came out. The smell was so strong. I had him stand in galley while I searched the lav with the door opened. I opened the trash bin and pulled out the compartment. There was a bunch of paper towels and one budweiser can (he had been drinking that). I pulled can out and smoke was coming out of the can. I called for the other flight attendant to get me a bunch of bottles of water while I put the can under water in the sink. I poured about 4 bottles into the can to ensure there was no possibility of a fire. He still continued to deny he did anything; but I said you were the only one drinking budweiser and you were the only one in the lav in the last half hour. I told him to give me his identification and go to his seat. He said 'can I talk to you?' to which I replied 'give me your identification take your seat and I will speak to you later.' flight attendant B notified a; who notified the captain. Flight attendant a made another no smoking announcement. I copied his information and filled out crewmember report of smoking. I gave him the bottom portion which notifies him that the incident will be reported to FAA. I also returned his identification. He started to say something and I stopped him. I said to him that he needed to really think about what could have happened to all of us on the aircraft because of his irresponsible and dangerous action. Had we not caught this immediately; I can't even imagine. He then pretended to sleep the remainder of the flight. The smoke detector did not go off. It should have.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A319 passenger was smoking a cigarette in the lavatory but the smoke detector failed to alert. A Flight Attendant detected the odor; confronted the passenger and found a smoldering cigarette in a beer can which she extinguished.

Narrative: A male passenger went into LAV F. He flushed several times and opened the door. Flight Attendant B said; do you smell that. As soon as the words were out of her mouth I did smell it. I stopped the passenger from going to seat and asked where he put the cigarette. He denied it of course and when he opened his mouth it was as if a cloud of smoke came out. The smell was so strong. I had him stand in galley while I searched the LAV with the door opened. I opened the trash bin and pulled out the compartment. There was a bunch of paper towels and one Budweiser can (he had been drinking that). I pulled can out and smoke was coming out of the can. I called for the other Flight Attendant to get me a bunch of bottles of water while I put the can under water in the sink. I poured about 4 bottles into the can to ensure there was no possibility of a fire. He still continued to deny he did anything; but I said you were the only one drinking Budweiser and you were the only one in the LAV in the last half hour. I told him to give me his ID and go to his seat. He said 'can I talk to you?' To which I replied 'give me your ID take your seat and I will speak to you later.' Flight Attendant B notified A; who notified the Captain. Flight Attendant A made another no smoking announcement. I copied his information and filled out crewmember report of smoking. I gave him the bottom portion which notifies him that the incident will be reported to FAA. I also returned his ID. He started to say something and I stopped him. I said to him that he needed to really think about what could have happened to all of us on the aircraft because of his irresponsible and dangerous action. Had we not caught this immediately; I can't even imagine. He then pretended to sleep the remainder of the flight. The smoke detector did not go off. It should have.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1193958
Time
Date	201408
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Qualification	Flight Attendant Current
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural FAR Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Misconduct Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

An A319 passenger was smoking a cigarette in the lavatory but the smoke detector failed to alert. A flight attendant detected the odor; confronted the passenger and found a smoldering cigarette in a beer can which she extinguished.